HENDRICK VAN STEENWIJCK THE YOUNGER
98 The Crypt of a Church with
Two Men Sleeping
Pen and dark brown ink, brown wash, graphite, and
white gouache heightening on tan paper; H: 12. 3 cm
(4I3/i6 in.); W: 16.5 cm (6*/2 in.)
84.00.42
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) on mount, signed(?)
and dated Henri van Steinwijck /1625 in brown ink.
PROVENANCE: Private collection, The Netherlands (sale,
Christie's, Amsterdam, November 26, 1984, lot 64).
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.
ALTHOUGH THE PAINTED WORK OF STEENWIJCK THE
Younger is well known, his drawings have never been
successfully identified, and the few attributions to him
have been hypothetical at best. This previously unknown
drawing appeared at Christie's, Amsterdam (1984), with
a convincing attribution to him. The dimly lit, vaulted
interior, with sleeping soldiers and a deep perspectival
rendering of space, is completely characteristic of his
paintings such as the Liberation of Saint Peter (Pasadena,
Norton Simon Museum). Combined with the date
and probable signature on the verso of the sheet, this
similarity makes his authorship of the Museum's draw-
ing a virtual certainty. It may have served as a prepara-
tory modello for a painting, but it seems far more likely
that the sheet was composed as an independent work,
given its high degree of completeness. Furthermore,
the seventeenth-century frame in which it has been pre-
served suggests that it was viewed as a finished compo-
sition from an early time.222 FLEMISH SCHOOL • STEENWIJCK